You can find cheaper yearly domain names than that. Not to mention if you purchase for multiple years the price goes down per year. I registered with whois.com Yearly rate is $9.88. GoDaddy is $12.95 a year. Do a little shopping to find the best price for you. I'm happy with whois.com for the price on my domain name.
After you get your domain name it's just a matter of registering it with your host. They can take care of it, or give you instructions on how to do it. Where you are going to host they are familiar with vB, so you shouldn't have a problem getting it going. The whole process shouldn't take more than a couple of hours to have your board ready to go. After you have the board installed you need to start taking security measures on it.
You can find all kinds of threads on how to secure your forum with a simple search. It's a good idea to have a document with all changes that you made. For example I've changed the name of my admin folder. If I'm going to upload a modification or update the site, I have to change the name of the admin folder they have to the name that I use. That is just one of several security things that you do.
Yeah I was thinking of getting multiple years like 5-10 years, but I didn't wanna risk not using the forum at all. I don't mind the price at all to be quite honest, but I'll give it a shot. I'll also see what I can do to secure the forum. thanks for the advice.